This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder
chapter-453

Sparks flew as steel clashed against steel. Gold scraped against silver, their smooth surfaces reflecting their wielder’s eyes. The golden saber reflected a domineering gaze with pupils full of destruction. The silver sword reflected void-like eyes, whose pupils contained the infinite night sky.

As sword and saber locked one another, their wielders locked gazes.

‘How is this possible?’ the Dragon Emperor thought as he pulled out. He didn’t continue to fall back as he shot forward, saber flashing. His saber turned into streaks and flashes of gold. Grating screeches echoed as they locked and clashed with the silver sword.

Neither the golden saber nor silver sword held a definite advantage. Herein lay the problem.

Who was the Dragon Emperor? He was a loose cultivator who rose to the peak without the support of any powerful forces. Quite the opposite, many forces wanted to kill him when he had not risen to his height of power. Obviously, they failed and became nourishment for the Dragon Emperor’s growth and prestige.

And how did the Dragon Emperor accomplish this near miraculous feat? Through his talent and inviolable willpower. Willpower, because even when a third-rate force targeted him, the Dragon Emperor did not despair. He hid himself under many aliases until he was either discovered or grew strong enough to retaliate. The fact that the third-rate force was history in the Primordial Realm already revealed what happened.

Talent because the more the Dragon Emperor fought, the stronger he became. In fact, the period of time the Dragon Emperor grew the fastest was during battle. During times of peace, the Dragon Emperor’s progress in comprehending the worldly laws had slowed down.

It was through battle that the Dragon Emperor comprehended the Concept of Shattering, which led him to mastering the Law of Destruction. It was through battling other immortals who comprehended the five elemental laws that allowed him to gain inspiration to reach the peak of the Seamless Immortal Realm. The stronger he grew, the more talented he became.

Before his fall and birth of the Dragon Emperor clones, he, the Dragon Emperor, had reached the peak of the Huang Realm. He was one of the few immortal emperors and mastered the saber to an incredible degree. Few swordsmen or other weapon wielders could contend with him.

Compared to his mastery of the Law of Destruction, or even his cultivation method that he created using dragon blood, the Dragon Emperor was most proud of his saber technique. He had met many opponents who exceeded his comprehension of the law, opponents who could curb his draconic advantages. Through it all, it was the saber in his hand that brought victory and survival.

Yet, this boy, this junior, Xi Tianyi, was clashing against his saber again and again based on pure swordsmanship.

The Dragon Emperor could still recall the first two times he clashed against Xi Tianyi. At that time, the boy was immature. His swordplay was rigid and a mess, a hodgepodge of techniques that did not flow well together. The only reason the boy could continue to win was because of his powerful martial body and seemingly endless qi.

But now, it’s different. Wholly different, like heaven and earth.

This junior, Xi Tianyi, was battling him on equal grounds that used swordplay that rivaled his saberplay.

It was not like the Dragon Emperor’s skills in the saber had stagnated after his death. Although it took time to regain his comprehension of the laws, the one thing that never stopped was his saberplay. He dared say that if all else stayed the same, his current skill in the saber far surpassed his previous life’s peak.

Which made the Dragon Emperor even more befuddled as to why Xi Tianyi’s swordplay matched his skill in the saber. As someone he planned to kill one day, the Dragon Emperor had collected as much information on him as possible. In his investigation, the most noteworthy mentions of Xi Tianyi were always about his unnaturally tough body, an immense amount of qi that seemed endless, and devastating attack. Nowhere did anyone mention his swordsmanship.

Had he been hiding his swordsmanship all this time or had he killed all the witnesses by the time he used it?

The Dragon Emperor strengthened his grip on his saber. Both he and Xi Tianyi were only using one weapon right now, and he didn’t want to be the first one to use more than one weapon. Call it pride, arrogance, or folly, but the Dragon Emperor wanted to prove that Xi Tianyi’s sword was inferior to his saber.

Xi Tianyi can be superior in cultivation, qi, martial body but never superior to his saber.

“Die!” the Dragon Emperor shouted as he raised his saber above his head. Faint dragon roars could be heard as the saber vibrated. It exuded a golden light as it slashed down, as if wanting to cut everything in half. Qi, Xi Tianyi, his sword, even the entire void.

It was an attack that even an immortal sovereign dared not take lightly.

“Weak.” Xi Tianyi raised his sword. Where the Dragon Emperor slashed down, he sliced up.

The Dragon Emperor’s slash carried an unstoppable momentum as if nothing could block it, but Xi Tianyi’s sword appeared incredibly ordinary, like a regular slash, far from the saber strike.

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When the two touched, they sliced past another, their flats screeching against the other as sparks flew. The Dragon Emperor’s saber, which could have slashed down in a straight line and bisected Xi Tianyi vertically, deviated. It was by the smallest of angles. Instead of slicing Xi Tianyi in half, it slid down his arm, cutting through his robe.

“Impossible,” the Dragon Emperor said.

Xi Tianyi’s robes were monarch-level artifacts. Most immortal emperors would need a few attacks to destroy, and the Dragon Emperor only needed one. Yet, when his saber slashed the exposed arm, it only left a thin mark. The thin line turned dark and black gaseous qi leaked out, but the injuries quickly healed.

“Are you an immortal sovereign?” the Dragon Emperor asked as he retreated. Aside from that, there was no other possible reason he could think of to explain why his slash did so little.

“No.” Xi Tianyi’s word was like a mockery that thundered in his ears. However, it was not the end. “Compared to Bao Ling, your saber slashes are too weak.”

The Dragon Emperor narrowed his eyes. Of course, he knew who Bao Ling was. Even if he hadn’t known as Lovespot of the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the Buddhist Pure Lands kept information on rising stars of both the Numinous Sword Sect and the Immortal Court.

But that only made him question life even more. Bao Ling was around Xi Tianyi’s age, only a little older. That difference was like a second for immortals like them. Just how strong would Bao Ling’s sword strike be if Xi Tianyi called his weak in comparison.

He wanted to call it a bluff, nothing more than a psychological tactic to disturb his confidence, but Xi Tianyi’s tone was too plain, as if stating a fact. “I didn’t expect you to be still in contact with the Numinous Sword Sect. Was this before the Huang Realm became the Primordial Realm? No, if it was, the Numinous Sword Sect would never allow it, so it must have been after, recent.”

The Dragon Emperor counter attacked. He wanted to expose the information he gleaned from Tianyi’s words. He knew that the Numinous Sword Sect had also appeared in the Broken Primordial World, and it was entirely possible for Tianyi to have fought Bao Ling there. However, how could Bao Ling use an attack that exceeded his current strength at that time? Not to mention that Tianyi was also still a mere mortal, hardly powerful enough to judge it.

“You’re right,” Xi Tianyi admitted without evading. “When I saw his swordplay, I realized it was an uncrossable gulf. It felt like that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to defeat him. Unless I reached the Divine Realm.”

“Don’t joke around,” the Dragon Emperor said. “Divine Realm? You haven’t even reached the Origin Immortal Realm. What makes you think you will succeed where so many others failed?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Xi Tianyi said. He held his sword in front of himself. There, he saw his reflection. “Speaking of which, I have to thank Bao Ling. Otherwise, my swordsmanship would not have progressed so much and exceeded your saberplay.”

“Exceeded my saberplay?” the Dragon Emperor roared. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Junior! I’ll show you the height of true saber skills. You frog at the bottom of a well!”

The Dragon Emperor charged. The saber intent on his golden saber condensed at the edge. It was an edge only as thick as a nanometer and made the golden saber appear devoid of any saber intent. However, anyone who underestimated it would pay.

Xi Tianyi did not back down. He met the Dragon Emperor’s saber head on with a slash of his own. It did not exude any kind of sword intent, nor any kind of elemental energy, just a simple sword swing.

When the golden metal clashed against the silver steel, there were no sparks, no screech of metal. The golden blade cut into the silver edge. It was not quite at the level of a hot knife through butter, but if Xi Tianyi didn’t retreat, his sword would be sheared in half.

A second later, the Dragon Emperor felt the loss of resistance. Against his expectations, Xi Tianyi had retreated. He had expected the latter to persevere, use some sort of technique to even the playing but not retreat.

“Engaging against someone with saber intent without my own was a bit foolish on my part,” Xi Tianyi said. He gazed at the Dragon Emperor without any fear or unease.

“What, don’t tell you’re going to use sword intent? Or maybe sword light? Against my saber intent, anything below sword intent is worthless,” the Dragon Emperor said. His words weren’t just meant to demoralize his opponent, but also raise his own momentum and confidence.

“I don’t have sword intent,” Xi Tianyi said. “Although I really wish I did, I’m suited for something else.”

With those words, he brandished his sword. A dark sheen covered the sword until it was dyed completely black. The color was so dark that it resembled a hole in reality. Then, an explosion occurred in that rift in reality, and the stars and planets were born.

This time, Xi Tianyi took the initiative. He shot toward the Dragon Emperor at a speed so fast that he only had enough time to raise his own saber in defense. The situation reminded him of when he fought Xi Tianyi as Longwei in the Nascent Soul Realm.

A thunderous crack echoed in the empty void as Xi Tianyi slashed his sword against the flat of his saber. The saber cried as the enormous force behind Xi Tianyi’s blade bent it beyond its limit. The Dragon Emperor could feel the very atoms split apart as Xi Tianyi used more and more force.

‘It’s over,’ the Dragon Emperor thought. He moved to retreat, and just in time, as his saber snapped in half and his opponent’s sword tip grazed against his golden scales, leaving sparks in their wake and an ugly scar on his body.

Another saber appeared in the Dragon Emperor’s hand. The saber intent condensed on the edge once more and he attacked Xi Tianyi. Condensing saber intent at the blade’s edge did dramatically increase its attack power, but it did nothing for its durability.

Like the Dragon Emperor, Xi Tianyi raised his sword as a shield. The Dragon Emperor’s eyes shone with a malicious glint. “Die!”

He slashed his saber at the black sword. The moment his saber made contact, the saber intent condensed on the edge exploded. It released a slash that continued forth and cut into Xi Tianyi, leaving a deep wound on his body, causing blood to explode forth without end.

Or, at least, that was what the Dragon Emperor expected. The moment the saber intent exploded forth from the blade, Xi Tianyi’s black blade released an unstoppable suction force that devoured the saber intent. Not just that, but spacetime around the blade bent, even his saber deformed and wrapped around the black sword like a vine before being sucked in.

Like before, the Dragon Emperor intended to abandon his weapon and retreat, but this time, Xi Tianyi didn’t want to let him go. His free hand reached out and grabbed the Dragon Emperor’s arm. He flicked the wrist of the hand holding his sword and the sword tip pierced toward the Dragon Emperor’s glabella.

Never before had the Dragon Emperor felt the brush of death as close as he had now. Acting on instinct, a golden glow encased him and a fishlike scale appeared on his forehead, where Xi Tianyi’s sword aimed at. Then, the sword tip struck the golden scale.